Sir Patrick Stewart dies at 86 in Los Angeles

Sir Patrick Stewart died Wednesday at the age of 86.

The British actor passed away at his home in Los Angeles. A statement posted to his Facebook and Instagram pages explained that he had been on a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.

Stewart is best known for two major roles in science fiction. He played Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the starship USS Enterprise, in Star Trek: The Next Generation. That series aired for seven seasons from 1987 to 1994. He later reprised the role in the streaming series Picard, which began in 2020 on Paramount+. He also starred as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise, starting in 2000.

His final appearance as Xavier will be in the upcoming movie Avengers: Doomsday.

Before his screen fame, Stewart built a career on the stage. He was born in Yorkshire, England, and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. He made his Broadway debut in 1970 in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In a 2023 interview with NPR, he described the feeling of standing in an empty theater. To stand in the middle of an empty stage in an empty theater and feel that I was at home was everything, he said. But it took a while for me to get there.

Stewart took the lead role in Star Trek: The Next Generation while lecturing on Shakespeare at UCLA. His friend and fellow actor Ian McKellen advised him against the move. Don't do this, Patrick, McKellen told him. You're a very good stage actor. That's where you ought to be. Don't do it.

Stewart's agent told him the show was unlikely to last past its first season. The actor recalled being encouraged to take what he thought would be a quick job. Do six months' work. Make some money for the first time in your life and get well known. Get a suntan, and go home, he recalled. And I thought, 'Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad. I could live with that.'

The series became a major hit, but the role limited his work in Shakespeare. He performed in an award-winning one-man version of A Christmas Carol, playing more than 40 roles. Writer Michael Chabon later pitched him the Picard series. I would've been happy just shaking Patrick Stewart's hand and telling him how much I loved him on Star Trek, Chabon told NPR. But to be able to actually write words that he will speak and act is, it's incredible.